Keep Up the Pace

Comparing "exhaustion" of a year of teaching vs. a year of corporate training & design

Recently, I had a former coworker over at my home and we got onto the topic of teacher burn out and, directly related, how exhausting teaching is. They asked me how my new corporate training & design job compared. I took a moment to stop and think.

You know the phrase “It’s a marathon, not a sprint”? Well for teachers, it’s both.

"Teaching is like a series of sprints for a marathon distance with tiny breaks between sprints so you don’t collapse from the pace."

Here’s what it’s like “running a marathon” (aka surviving a school year) as a teacher:

August comes and you hit the ground running, which is fine because you just had summer “off” to recover (we’ll come back to that common misunderstanding later). But by the time labor day hits at start of September, you need it to catch your breath real quick, then it’s back to the races. You get a brief water break for Columbus day, but you don’t get to stop running because it’s just a PD day, so you jog as you drink. By the time November hits, you’ve been running for so long, you’re starting to limp, but you push through to Thanksgiving break and absolutely collapse. You get a week to recover, because you know when you get up, you have to SPRINT to make up for lost time to carry you through to semester exams. When you get to Christmas break, your limp is so bad, you think it might be a lasting injury, so you take the two weak break to nurse your wound as best you can, but you know you’ve got to splint & tape it back up because it’s time for second semester. And sooner than you can blink, it’s here, and you’re up again. You’re starting at a jog because that’s all you can manage at the moment. Your grateful for another water break mid-February, but now they expect you to run again, so you pick up the pace. When Spring Break hits in March, you’re crying, but you know you’re almost there, so you dry you tears, check your splint, and get up to run. And on that busted leg, you run through April and then sprint through May exams to the finish line. You’ve made it. You ran the Marathon. You’re hurt and exhausted and sobbing with relief. Your friends and family have to help carry you off the course. You get one week in bed… but then you know you have to get up again and start walking. You have to make money over summer, but at least you get to walk for two months. And just as you’re starting to recover, August comes.

By contrast, corporate training & design is like doing that same marathon, but at an alternating run / jog/ walk interval pace continuously without breaks.

First, there is no “end or beginning” like there is with teaching. But for my current role—which revolves around the Medicare agent’s selling seasons—I’d describe our tempo like this: With AEP around the corner, things start to pick up in May so we’re at a full jog. June & July is running. August is fast running (pushing that tempo), September is slowing back to a regular run. Then October is a relaxed, casual walk. November is jogging and December is a jog/ run as we prepare for OEP. January is back to a walk, February and March is walk / jog. April is a Jog as you start to rev back up for pre-AEP season once again.

"Why do teachers burn out?"

If my previously analogy didn’t make it clear enough, let me be blunt: Running a marathon distance at a sprinting pace is not sustainable—it’s downright dangerous. Yes, teachers get more breaks/ vacation time—but they NEED IT. Those breaks are the only thing that keep them going. Even with the breaks, the pace they’re setting is impossible to maintain, and teachers break themselves and burn out trying to do so.

With a corporate job, it’s still hard work --it's a marathon as well-- but it moves at a much more reasonable pace. You aren’t sprinting until you collapse. Your job has waves: times of higher intensity and lower intensity so you can recover. Teaching is high intensity all the time. So the next time you’re about to say you’re jealous of a teacher’s vacation time or justify a teacher’s salary as being so low because they “get summers off.” Do us all a favor and don’t.

"Why do they keep running?"

I know it seems cliché, but they do it for the kids. Teaching is one of the most fulfilling things I have ever done. Seeing a lightbulb come on over a kids head or helping them work through a difficult emotion or knowing that you helped them find their strength and passion is something you just can’t find anywhere else. Being able to make a difference for that many people in that way is something no other career has. And so despite the fact that they are limping and bleeding, they don’t let the kids see it. They fight on and set that positive example. They keep running… until one day they can’t anymore. For those still running the race, I’m proud of you for sticking with it—but remember, when you need to slow down and jog, it’s OK. Even when others shame you for it; it’s the only way to avoid quitting. Nobody can sprint forever.